What If We Get It Right?
Visions of Climate Futures
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “With a thoughtfully curated series of essays, poetry, and conversations, the brilliant scientist and climate expert Ayana Elizabeth Johnson has assembled a group of dynamic people who are willing to imagine what seems impossible, and articulate those visions with enthusiastic clarity.”—Roxane Gay
Our climate future is not yet written. What if we act as if we love the future?
A SMITHSONIAN BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Sometimes the bravest thing we can do while facing an existential crisis is imagine life on the other side. This provocative and joyous book maps an inspiring landscape of possible climate futures.
Through clear-eyed essays and vibrant conversations, infused with data, poetry, and art, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson guides us through solutions and possibilities at the nexus of science, policy, culture, and justice. Visionary farmers and financiers, architects and advocates, help us conjure a flourishing future, one worth the effort it will take—from every one of us, with whatever we have to offer—to create.
If you haven’t yet been able to picture a transformed and replenished world—or to see yourself, your loved ones, and your community in it—this book is for you. If you haven’t yet found your role in shaping this new world or you’re not sure how we can actually get there, this book is for you.
With grace, humor, and humanity, Johnson invites readers to ask and answer this ultimate question together: What if we get it right?
On possibility and transformation with:
Paola Antonelli • Xiye Bastida • Jade Begay • Wendell Berry • Régine Clément • Steve Connell • Erica Deeman • Abigail Dillen • Brian Donahue • Jean Flemma • Kelly Sims Gallagher • Rhiana Gunn-Wright • Olalekan Jeyifous • Corley Kenna • Bryan C. Lee Jr. • Franklin Leonard • Adam McKay • Bill McKibben • Kate Marvel • Samantha Montano • Kate Orff • Leah Penniman • Marge Piercy • Colette Pichon Battle • Kendra Pierre-Louis • Judith D. Schwartz • Jigar Shah • Ayisha Siddiqa • Bren Smith • Oana Stănescu • Mustafa Suleyman • Jacqueline Woodson
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
There are countless means by which a sustainable future is possible, if only society has the political will to enact them, according to this galvanizing survey. Marine biologist Johnson (All We Can Save) draws on in-depth interviews with experts in earth science, tech, design, and agriculture, as well as activists and journalists, to showcase the vast array of potential solutions and to help readers envision what the future could look like (Johnson writes that her motivation for writing the book was her own difficulty imagining a post-fossil fuel world). The interviews are remarkably insightful. Some add depth to familiar topics (journalist Bill McKibben gives a robust explanation of how entrenched the banking system is in the fossil fuel industry; activists Xiye Bastida and Ayisha Siddiqa recount the recent history of the youth climate movement, incisively reflecting on the benefits and limitations of the mass protests favored in the movement's early years and outlining today's more multifaceted strategy), while others will likely surprise readers (environmental historian Brian Donahue suggests that land-rich towns and suburbs that have recently gotten into community gardening should try forestry next). Johnson's account is buoyed throughout by her adamant belief that sweeping change is possible, with a little push ("Moving forward requires that we propel each other.... We need to leap"). This is a much-needed antidote to "climate grief."
